and slothfulness, he experiences a loss which no efforts can retrieve, and brings a stain upon his character which no tears can wash away.

Life will inevitably take much of its shape and colouring from the plastic powers that are now operating. Every thing almost depends upon giving a proper direction to this outset of life. The course now taken is usually decisive. The principles now adopted, and the habits now formed, whether good or bad, become a kind of se⚫cond nature, fixed and permanent.

Youthful thoughtlessness, I know, is wont to regard the indiscretions and vicious indulgencies of this period, as of very little importance. But believe me, my friends, they have great influence in forming your future character, and deciding the estimation in which you are to be held in the community. They are the germs of bad habits; and bad habits confirmed, are ruin to the character and the soul.

The errors and vices of a young man, even when they do not ripen into habit, impress a blot on the name which is rarely effaced. They are remembered in subsequent life; the public eye is often turning back to them; the stigma is seen; it cleaves fast to the character, and its unhappy effects are felt till the end of his days.

"A fair reputation, it should be remembered, is a plant, delicate in its nature, and by no means rapid in its growth. It will not shoot up in a night, like the gourd that shaded the prophet's head; but like that same gourd it may perish in a night." A character which it has cost many years to establish, is often destroyed in a single hour, or even minute. Guard, then, with peculiar vigilance, this forming, fixing season of your existence; and let the precious days and hours that are now passing by you, be diligently occupied in acquiring those habits of intelligence, of virtue and enterprise, which are so essential to the honour and success of future life.

To the formation of a good character it is of the highest importance that you have a commanding object in view, and that your aim in life be elevated. To this cause, perhaps, more than to any other, is to be ascribed the great difference which appears in the characters of men. Some start in life with an object in view, and are determined to attain it; whilst others live without plan, and reach not

for the prize set before them. The energies of the one are called into vigorous action, and they rise to eminence, whilst the others are left to slumber in ignoble ease and sink into obscurity.

It is an old proverb, that he who aims at the sun, to be sure will not reach it, but his arrow will fly higher than if he aimed at an object on a level with himself. Just so in the formation of character. Set your standard high; and, though you may not reach it, you can hardly fail to rise higher than if you aimed at some inferior excellence. Young men are not, in general, conscious of what they are capable of doing.

They do not task their faculties, nor improve their powers, nor attempt, as they ought, to rise to superior excellence. They have no high, commanding object at which to aim; but often seem to be passing away life without object and without aim. The consequence is, their efforts are few and feeble; they are not waked up to any thing great or distinguished; and therefore fail to acquire a character of decided worth.

My friends, you may be whatever you resolve to be. Resolution is omnipotent. Determine that you will be something in the world, and you shall be something. Aim at excellence, and excellence will be attained. This is the great secret of effort and eminence. I cannot do it, never accomplished any thing; I will try, has wrought wonders.

You have all perhaps heard of the young man, who, having wasted, in a short time, a large patrimony, in profligate revels, formed a purpose, while hanging over the brow of a precipice from which he had determined to throw himself, that he would regain what he had lost. The purpose thus formed he kept; and though he began by shovelling a load of coals into a cellar, he proceeded from one step to another, till he more than recovered his lost possession, and died an inveterate miser, worth sixty thousand pounds.

I mention this, not as an example to be imitated, but as a signal instance of what can be accomplished by fixed purpose and persevering exertion. A young man who sets out in life with a determination to excel, can hardly fail of his purpose. There is, in his case, a steadiness of aim, a concentration of feeling and effort, which bear

him onward to his object with irresistible energy, render success, in whatever he undertakes, certain.

and

Another thing of great importance in the formation of a good character, is intercourse with persons of decided virtue and excellence. The power of example is proverbial. We are creatures of imitation; and by a necessary influence, our temper and habits are very much formed on the model of those with whom we familiarly associate. In this view, nothing is of more importance to young men than the choice of their companions.

If they select for their associates the intelligent, the virtuous, and the enterprising, great and most happy will be the effects on their own character and habits. With these living, breathing patterns of excellence before them, they can hardly fail to feel a disgust at every thing that is low, unworthy and vicious, and be inspired with a desire to advance in whatever is praiseworthy and good. It is needless to add, the opposite of all this is the certain consequence of intimacy with persons of bad habits and profligate lives.

But, of all the means of forming a good character, the most efficient is a deep and practical sense of responsibility to God. He who has an abiding impression on his mind of the ever present and immutable God, and who contemplates, with due affection and reverence, his relations to him and eternity, has acting on his character an influence of constant and mighty energy,-preserving him from all that is low and debasing; and elevating him to all that is holy and blissful.

If to contemplate patterns of human excellence tends to improve the heart and elevate the character, how much more certainly and constantly will a similar effect be produced by an habitual contemplation of the adorable Jehovah," a character which, to use the language of another, "borrows splendour from all that is fair; subordinates to itself all that is great; and sits enthroned on the riches of the universe." Beholding this character, and living under this influence, we are changed from glory to glory, into the same image, as by the spirit of the Lord.

Indeed, my friends, true religion, the love and the fear of God implanted in the mind, is the most powerfully transforming cause, that can be brought to act on the character of man. The truths it unfolds, the motives it

urges, the interests it involves, the prospects it opens, the hopes it inspires, and the fears it awakens, are fitted to influence, in the most powerful manner, all the feelings and faculties of the mind,-to fill the soul with the noblest views and the purest sentiments; to direct all its energies, desires and purposes, to their proper use and end.

When once seated in the bosom, it raises the thoughts and hopes to God and heaven ; it opens the eye on the grandeur and bliss of eternity; it imparts new light and vigour to the mind; throws around the character and ways, the protection of established principles and habits; and secures to its possessor a safe passage through all the temptations of this corrupted and corrupting world, to the abodes of eternal purity and blessedness.

The man of true religion stands on firm and elevated ground; his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord; and he feels within him the workings of a principle, which, like the hand of God, will not let him go; but amidst all the assaults of the world, keeps him in the path of virtue, of happiness and heaven.

The character that is without religion, is without the firmest support, and the chief excellence of a moral being. It has impressed on it the deformity of a great and palpable defect; and whatever virtues it does possess, are like flowers planted in the now, or withered by the droughtwanting the life, the vigour, and the beauty, which religion alone can impart.

LESSON XI.

Government of the Thoughts.-JANE Taylor.

THERE is a prevailing desire in the minds of many young people to be freed from the restraints of authority; an impatience for that period to arrive when they shall be at liberty to direct their own actions. It is not, perhaps, very uncommon for them to imagine that they should be more willing even to do right-that it would be easier, and far more agreeable-if it were no longer a matter of constraint, but of choice.

To any who may have entertained such ideas, I

would propose a method by which they may already ascertain their powers of self-government; and direct them to a sphere of action, which, whatever their present circumstances may be, is subject to no external control; where parents, tutors, friends, have no dominion; where they are already emancipated from every outward restraint. Here then they may try their strength and prove their skill; and if they fail here, it is but reasonable to conclude that they would be, at least, equally unsuccessful, if entrusted with the direction of their own conduct.

But in what way, it may be asked, are persons whose time, pursuits, actions, whose very recreations are in a measure regulated by others, at liberty to command themselves? There are, indeed, several ways in which this question might be profitably answered; but we shall at present confine ourselves to one, and reply-Thought is free. Here is a boundless field, over which the youngest and most strictly guarded possesses unlimited dominion.

Here the eye of the most watchful friend cannot penetrate. At the very moment that a child is gratifying a parent's feelings by some act of obedience, the thoughts may be so employed as would incur his severest displeasure. There is but one whose eye discerns "the thoughts and intents of the heart ;" and a lively recollection of that eye being ever present, beholding and recording all that passes within, would, indeed, supersede every other consideration.

Here then, let the proud spirit, impatient of control, and confident of his strength to resist temptation and avoid danger, begin to exercise his self-command. And here let the modest and ingenuous, who cheerfully submit to wholesome restraint and parental guidance, give double diligence in guarding and regulating that to which parental authority cannot extend.

All self-government begins here. He who cannot command his thoughts, must not hope to controul his actions: The smallest attention to our own minds must convince us that the thoughts require restraint. If left to pursue their own course, they will assuredly take a wrong one. Three different descriptions of thought might be mentioned, closely indeed connected with each other, but which generally, perhaps, occur in the following order :-idle thoughts, vain thoughts, and wicked thoughts.